Doctors Without Borders Japan gets a birthday greeting from the anime world

We all grew up on heroes presented to us in fantastic tales on television or in books — larger then life characters gifted with special talents to help humanity. Their acts of kindness and strength help shape our own characters into better people.

But in all the exciting adventures and charisma of these fictional stars, the real heroes of life are often overlooked. Among these hardworking saints you’d be hard pressed to find a better example than the members of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or “Doctors Without Borders” in English.

Ever since the group’s founding, its highly skilled and highly compassionate members have been putting themselves in harm’s way to help those most in need inside of war, disaster, and disease-afflicted areas, free of any political or religious agenda of their own.

MSF was founded by French doctors in 1971, but other nations have joined their ranks over the years including Japan in 1992. Those with advanced degrees in mathematics should be able to determine that this makes 2017 the 25th anniversary of MSF-Japan.

In honor of the event a special webpage was set up with messages of thanks and support from various Japanese writers and artists. However, a little down on this wall of messages came one from a very unexpected source.

It’s none other than Cure Whip of the magical animal-pastry-teen-girl hybrid sextet Pretty Cure (Puri Kyua)! While sticking out like a sore thumb to most adults, any four-to-ten-year-old Japanese girl could probably tell you why it makes perfect sense that the star of Kira Kira ☆ Pretty Cure à la Mode is there.

Before harnessing the awesome powers of strawberry cakes and rabbits, Cure Whip’s alter ego, Ichika Usami, was just a regular 14-year-old aspiring pâtissier. Baking was her favorite hobby while her mother, Satomi Usami, was off in foreign lands working as a doctor.

Here is her message to MSF-Japan:

“I’m Ichika Usami, part of the legendary Pâtisserie Pretty Cure! Actually my mother also is a doctor working overseas. She is living away from home now. Sometimes I feel a little lonely, but I think what she does is totally cool. I support the work of everyone who protects the smiling faces of the world!”
Ichika Usami (Cure Whip)

A very lovely gesture, but Pretty Cure historians might be a little disappointed that it still doesn’t confirm that Satomi Usami is actually a member of MSF-Japan. Even the MSF website only refers to Satomi as being “rumored to belong to MSF.”

Nevertheless, it is hard to overstate how big the Pretty Cure franchise is in Japan among children, especially young girls… and a very special group of adult men. By lending their wide recognition to one of the most unsung heroes in modern history, it will hopefully inspire many Japanese children to follow in MSF’s example.

Because of this, I was even able to finally introduce MSF to my young daughter and hold her attention in the process thanks to the help of Cure Whip. My previous attempts to explain the Biafran War just kept going over her head.